The airbag modules which are generally known from the prior art and which have an inflatable air sack and an inflator are intended to protect the occupants of a vehicle from injury in the event of an impact or rollover of a vehicle. In the course of continuing development of safety devices in motor vehicles, more and more vehicles feature a so-called side airbag which protects the vehicle occupant sitting in a vehicle seat laterally from contact with the side structures of the vehicle, for example, door and/or pillar structures. In this instance, it is important that the air sack is deployed correctly and in a predetermined direction since the space between the side structures and the vehicle seat/occupant is small.
Documents U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,151A, U.S. Pat. No. 6,523,273B1 and DE 103 40 508 A1 disclose, for example, airbag modules which are received in a backrest of a vehicle seat.
In addition to accommodating the airbag module in the backrest of a vehicle seat, the integration of airbag modules in seat bottom portions of vehicle seats is also known, as disclosed, for example, in the printed publications U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,703A, JP 2011-156907 A and U.S. Pat. No. 6,896,325B2. In this instance, the airbag modules may, on the one hand, act as side airbags or also serve to tilt the seat face in the event of an accident in order to improve the seating position of the vehicle occupant sitting in the vehicle seat.
Airbag modules accommodated in seat portions of vehicle seats are generally subjected to greater loads during their service-life, for example, as a result of ordinarily occurring entry and exit operations of occupants sitting in the vehicle seat, than airbag modules accommodated in backrests. It is also possible for a direct high loading of the seat portion, for example, as a result of heavy bags, crates, cases and the like, which are placed on the seat portion as well as an indirect high loading of the rear side of a backrest of the vehicle seat which is folded forward, to contribute to a significant loading of the airbag module which is received in the seat portion.